Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The Insanity of California's Greenhouse Gas Legislation

Cost to "avoid" global warming: $1.3 Quadrillion per Degree

Suspend disbelief for a moment and just assume that man-made CO2 causes global warming...And assume that California's Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) goes into effect and is not delayed by the increasingly impoverished citizens of California... what would the cost/assumed benefits ratio be?

Let's do a back-of-the-envelope calculation, since it apparently wasn't done by California legislators:

and since the cost of AB 32 (direct & indirect) is at least $116 Billion, the cost to "avoid global warming" per 1°C would be $116,000,000,000/.000087429 = $1,326,790,881,744,043 ($1.3 Quadrillion per degree). Note: Global GDP (61.1 trillion) is less than 5% of this amount. Looks like the cost/(assumed benefits) ratio is rather high, even if you are a true believer.